Adam Lee Milelr and Nicola Kuperus a.k.a. Adult. return with a brace of high profile guests in tow on Detroit House Guests, slotting vocals from Michael Gira, Shannon Funchess, Douglas J McCarthy, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Dorit Chrysler and Lun*na Menoh into their urbane electro-pop frameworks.
As such Detroit House Guest is an album full of songs, rather than pure dance tracks, albeit leaning toward a category of avant-dance-pop songwriting shared by the likes of Chris & Cosey and members-only darkrooms in private buildings that many will never visit.
The dancefloor highlights come in the form of their pumping EBM-pop stompers We Chase The Sound and Stop (And StartAgain) feat. Shannon Funchess, and the nasal drip tang of We Are A Mirror feat. the authentically snotty snarl of Nitzer Ebb’s Douglas McCarthy, but our preferred parts are reserved to the trippier pieces such as the Fever Ray-like creep and reverberant electronic tone of P rts M ss ng and This Situation’s descent into a dissonant abyss, featuring choral harmonies and modular gilding, respectively, by synth whizz Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe.
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The celebrated Polish electroacoustic composer returns with a new offering for Ghostly.
The metaphysical musings of 17th Century English poet Robert Herrick form the creative impetus for Jacaszek’s first album since the Touch-released ‘Catalogue Des Arbres’ in 2014.
Inspired by reading an anthology of Herrick’s poems, particularly the song-like structure of the rhymes, the Gdansk composer revisited an archive of unreleased recordings and set about shaping them into the eleven tracks that form ‘KWIATY.’ The big difference to previous Jacaszek albums is the prominence of vocals – courtesy of Hanimal’s Hania Malarowska, Joasia Sobowiec-Jamioł and Natalia Grzebała – which lends ‘KWIATY’ an extra semblance of accessibility.
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Experimental accordion player Mario Batkovic’s debut full length a captivating and resolutely unique solo album, which carelessly expands the possibilities of the accordion.
"The accordion heard as never before - a magnificently intense ocean of pulsating and shifting notes, with engrossing and mesmerising melodies which deeply grip human emotion. This release will appeal to fans of Nils Frahm, Stephen O’Malley, BEAK>, Colin Stetson and Lubomyr Melnyk."
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Steeply hypnotic and tenderly textured solo guitar and loop pedal excursion from Swans’ guitarist Norman Westberg...
“A few years ago, my dear friend and bandmate Jamie Stewart and I were talking about SWANS. I started to mention how much I admired the utterly personal approach to guitar that Norman Westberg had developed on those early records and moreover how that had blossomed out so richly on this latest incarnation of the band. During the course of the conversation Jamie mentioned a CDR that Norman had passed to him, which collected a few pieces of solo work that Norman had been working on. I was instantly curious to hear these pieces and started to track down the recordings online. After some investigating I found Norman’s CDRs available through an Etsy shop he had set up. I ordered one and a couple of weeks later, after I’d listened to that first CDR non-stop for a few days, I order all the others I could get my hands on.
The first solo work I heard from Norman was this recording, Jasper Sits Out. I was instantly struck by the textural sensitivity he managed to create with nothing more than a guitar and some modest pedals. He managed to find a depth in what was a very limited palette and that impressed me greatly. The connections to his work with SWANS was clear, in that his trademark relation to tonality was present. Instead of relying on volume to achieve this sonic state though, Norman’s solo practice relied on a sense of swaying harmony and orbiting loops to create a tonally dense sound world that was very much personal, but overtly invitational to the listener.
Jasper Sits Out, the title referencing the Westberg family mascot who has now sadly departed, reflects Norman’s interest in minimal structures and the processes of iteration that are formed through the manipulation of looping fragments. Creating almost tidal surges across these pieces, Jasper Sits Out speaks to his abilities to contour sound in time. The lead track for example is truly oceanic in that is has a remarkable tidal flow of strumming textures that seem to sink below one another in a effortless wash of textural density.
I could not be more pleased to be able to share this music through Room40. This edition comes completely remastered and features a bonus piece recorded exclusively for this edition. I encourage you to listen deeply. Lawrence English, January 2017.”
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A haunting debut for The Infected Mass project from Winnipeg-based composer Matthew Patton.
Long-running Montréal outpost Constellation play willing host to this haunting new project from the celebrated American composer Matthew Patton. Describing Those Who Walk Away as an "ever evolving working group of melodic constructivists," this debut album from the project finds Patton striking up a symphonic understanding with a local Winnipeg string quintet and a quartet of Iceland Symphony Orchestra players, utilising the implicit restraint and tension of their craft alongside musique concrète methods. Despite the interaction of these musicians, ‘The Infected Mass’ is clearly a very personal one for Patton and framed in honour of his brother who passed away in a plane crash.
He elects to exorcise the demons of this tragedy in a disturbing manner (a fact Patton freely admits to in the press notes) by implementing audio from black box recordings of commercial flights in distress. These appear notably on two tracks, First Partially Recollected Conversation and Second Partially Recollected Conversation, interspersed with field recordings of hushed, indecipherable hums and whispers. “This work is disturbingly personal for me. The music is filled with ghosts and artifacts I couldn't erase,” Patton notes solemnly.
Elsewhere, the obvious chi between Patton and his fellow constructivists offers an equally chilling feeling, the ‘ghost choir’ of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra expertly arranged over the calming vista of almost-silence that is opener Before the Beginning. Looking to Morton Feldman for inspiration, Patton’s usage of silence is equally as important to ‘The Infected Mass’ as the participation of the violin, cello and double bass players.
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Hills 3rd album with Rocket Recordings.
"Hot off the Swedish Psychedelia revival of the past few years and after their hailed 2015 album ‘Frid’, Hills connect the dots to their countries rich and intoxicating past with a handful of new sepia-toned tunes. Like their predecessors unholy trinity of Pärson Sound, International Harvester and Träd Gräs och Stenar, Hills penchant to stretch out beyond, performing what feels like openly casual exhortations into intricate eastern tones and primal hypnotic rhythms, the band illustrates that their sermons offer rational derangements of all the senses.
These four tracks sit deeply buried in oblivion, bones, skin, sweat, grooved with fearless intensity with no diminution of the interplay, spontaneity and feeling onstage, the band are entombed in mantric repetition while the vapour trail of The Byrds ‘Untitled’ epic; ‘Eight Miles High’ descend into an Elysian Field, where the dead enjoy happy tranquility, until they come to life and rise up again.
Alive in Roadburn summons the spirits of Swedish Midsummer celebration, the welcoming of the light of the longest day, as a people who have endured the long dark winter, their celebration of light, steeped in pagan roots are absorbed into the bands psyche and these tracks sit like Cairns on the Swedish landscape, built as monuments to Hills. The Hills are very much Alive and Burning."
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If you're new to Throbbing Gristle then, well, shame on you; but don't worry, all's not lost, you can get up to speed with the help of the band's Greatest Hits, newly remastered.
First released by Rough Trade in 1980 with the apt subtitle Entertainment Through Pain, it's an unbeatable summary of crucial material from Gen, Chris, Cosey and Sleazy's first three albums (Second Annual Report, DoA: The Third and Final Report and 20 Jazz Funk Greats), taking in the robo-fetish disco of 'Hot On The Heels of Love', the piss-streaked paranoia of 'Subhuman', the deadpan synth-pop pretensions of 'United' and more.
Once you've heard any of this stuff, you'll want to explore each album properly, but for now, if you ever wondered why TG are so deeply revered but were too afraid to ask, this'll tell you what you need to know. Punk might have done away with the past, but it was Throbbing Gristle that created the future.
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Live performance brought out Throbbing Gristle's talents for improvisation and provocation, and it's no coincidence that most of their classic albums contain sizeable extracts and edits of their shows; the live arena - be it grotty club, gallery space, concert hall or even the band's own rehearsal space - is where the action and the innovation really happened.
The bulk of Heathen Earth documents one particular performance which took place in 1980 on "Saturday the 16th February between 8:10pm and 9.00pm"; the tracklist is filled out with two recordings from two separate performances in '78. It's a hugely enjoyable listen, arguably capturing better than any of the "studio" albums the tension between free-wheeling abstraction and structural discipline which defines the group. It's also probably the most obviously electronic TG album of its time, Gen's guitar and Cosey's cornet duelling with Carter and Sleazy's clipped, clammy minimal synth constructions: 'The Old Man Smiled', 'Something Came Over Me', 'Don't Do As Your Told, Do As You Think' and 'The World Is A War Film' are all breathtakingly, pulsatingly ahead of their time.
'Still Walking', first heard on 20 Jazz Funk Greats, sounds even more surreal and seductive in its live incarnation, Cosey's dour East Yorkshire vowels echoed to infinity, before P.Orridge presents a vision of paranoia and self-loathing purified in 'Sub Human' and 'Adrenalin' brings things to an oddly ecstatic, hi-NRG close, Carter fully indulging his arpeggiated Euro-disco inclinations.
Unmissable.
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First ever repress of a joyful 1979 jazz-funk slab originally issued on the splendidly titled Integrated Performance Systems International Incorporated label, now dug out by Melbourne’s Left Ear Records.
Original copies go for the price of a lovingly used small Japanese hatchback.
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Features members of OM, Holy Sons, Lilacs & Champagne, and Watter.
"At the start of 2005 Grails returned to the US from a month-long European tour. Stepping off the plane, most of the band walked in one direction and the violinist strayed off into another. It ended up being the last time most anyone would see or talk to him. A bandmate for three albums in five years had vanished only to exist in the form of vague rumors.
As the varied reports of brief encounters and sightings grew stranger and darker, the band began a series of recordings called Black Tar Prophecies. With newly liberated instrumental roles came new possibilities for the band’s sound. In this way the collected Black Tar Prophecies Vols. 1, 2, & 3 ends up being a more idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing their fondness for the ‘60s and ‘70s experimental artists that saw music as a process of discovery. A parallel was now forming between Grails and pioneering experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from the beginning to build new languages in music.
Black Tar Prophecies Vols. 1, 2, & 3 is a massive evolutionary step in the established Grails sound and is shrouded in change and pain. The somewhat clinical studio sound and recording style with which they had established a tremendous following has been replaced with a much more free and conceptual recording style. This method liberated the group in the studio and these recordings feel much more open, heavy, and psychedelic. This sound has always existed within Grails, but it was here that it became their identity."
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More than ever, Grails' doomy krautrock experimentation is charged with a muscular, stoneage potency on pieces like 'Take Refuge' or the slow moving pentatonic riffs and Eastern instrumental flourishes that prop up on the illustratively titled 'Stoned At The Taj Again'.
The likes of 'PTSD' and '11th Hour' carry more of a pensive, atmospheric feel, with the latter fashioning a sinister, baroque mood while the former comes across as slightly less structured, but heavier on the (dare I say it) 'vibes'. Almost a polar opposite of the avant-garde gloom that colours much of this, the glistening, undistorted guitar tones and vaporous soundscaping qualities of 'Clean Living' sound lighter than air, floating on a bed of strings and pianos that hint towards discordance but never quite go that far.
Grails have delivered five great instrumental pieces - as detailed and thorough as they are unclassifiable. It's another masterful album from one of the great undiscovered bands.
Highly Recommended.
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Little known ‘fact’: Thundercat has 15 fingers and 3 thumbs, which enables him to play all the chords, in every combination, and invent a few ones, on Drunk; his 4th album with the Brainfeeder family, featuring guest turns by Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Wiz Khalifa, Kamasi Washington, and Kenny bloody Loggins! It’s the closest you’ll find to ‘70s soul and jazz-fusion beyond the original thing...
“The album is a 23-track epic journey into the often hilarious, sometimes dark mind of the Grammy-winning singer/bassist and finds a few of his friends joining him along the way including: Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Wiz Khalifa, Kamasi Washington and Brainfeeder mastermind Flying Lotus. “Drunk” is the follow up to his widely praised 2015 mini album “The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam”, and features fan favourite tracks ‘Bus In These Streets’ and ‘Them Changes’.
‘Show You The Way’ is the first single from “Drunk”, and the ballad features two of Thundercat’s heroes: iconic musicians Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. And how did this collaboration come to be? Thundercat mentioned his love of Loggins several times during his press tour for “The Beyond…” (Dinner Party Download, Billboard), leading to an introduction via his keyboard player Dennis Hamm. He tells Red Bull Music Academy Daily: “These are guys that I've listened to and where I felt that I've learned that honesty in the music. Kenny Loggins is one of my favourite songwriters.” Loggins was the one that suggested bringing McDonald in on the track and, Thundercat adds: “I think one of the most beautiful moments was realising how amazing Michael McDonald is. He would go through so many ideas and have so much to offer.”
Thundercat also notes: “That song to me is about going down the rabbit hole, taking you to another place… On the edge of dark, there's the brightest light. It means a lot to me in the sense of... the experience that I've had growing up with friends and people that I've been around where it's inviting them into where I come from emotionally. Sometimes it's a pretty intense thing. The point is how weird things can get. I feel like it's very funny that, in a way, of course Michael McDonald and Kenny would be there.”
The album title, like the rest of the album, is meant to be both humorous and serious. “I’ve always tried to hold true to what Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus told me: It has to come from an honest place. I feel like it’s a place that I’ve been in different ways, seen different angles of and it’s been a bit inspirational - the drinking,” he tells RBMA Daily. “It has its ups and downs and everything, but I felt like it showed the human side of what goes on behind things, something that I see with all of my friends… I felt like it was kind of interweaved in the music culture. And it’s something that’s never talked about.”
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Brilliant synth wave and noise pop record featuring Charlemagne Palestine, Kristof Hahn (Swans) and many more. Produced by John Congleton (Blondie, Sigur Ros), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) and Angela Seo (Xiu Xiu).
"To Forget is the mighty engrossing new album from Jamie Stewart and co’s Xiu Xiu; following up Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks with a dreamily damaged set of urgent, technoid and operatic songcraft starring a fellow cast of avant stars such as legendary minimalist Charlemagne Palestine and Swans virtuoso guitarist Kristof Hahn, and all wickedly offset by vocals from LA Banjee Ball (ballroom for yungers) commentator Enyce Smith and drag artist Vaginal Davis. That may sound like there’s a possibility for too many cocks to spoil the breath, but Jamie Stewart handles his squad with visionary aplomb, resulting one of his strongest, approachably pop-wise yet fierce Xiu Xiu records, bar none.
Realised during a period of unprecedented fecundity which also resulted an album with Merzbow, an experimental reworking of the Mozart opera, The Magic Flute, and a soundtrack for Danh Vo’s art installation, To Forget binds the strongest stands of Xiu Xiu’s far-reaching output to date in a volley of succinct pop shots that alternately come off like Cold Cave meets Mykki Blanco or Scott Walker bunking off with Erasure at Matmos’ place, for comparison, yet firmly holds to a sound that can only, patently be described as Xiu Xiu’s own.
Between the record’s foot-stamping standout Wondering and the arcane melodrama of Faith, Torn Apart at its close, Stewart and team fuse and fit disparate elements and juxtapositions with an alchemical frenzy which is remarkable in itself, but might mean much less if it wasn’t all so coherent, economical and pointed with highlights such as the skulking, scalding and Suicide-like Jenny GoGo and the epic chamber noise pop of its title track and the incendiary slow slugger Queen of the Losers, with each adding up to a subversive, emotive episode whose nuance and effect will warrant many return listens."
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Frighteningly dense and gripping live performance of compositions by Swiss sound-artist Antoine Chessex from UK-based avant-garde/contemporary music ensemble Apartment House (wind, strings), and pivotal French sound artist Jérõme Noetinger (reel-to-reel tape) at two shows in London’s Cafe Oto between 2014 and 2015.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
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The legendary Prescription Records defined the 1990s deep house sound and this epic new comp holds numerous classics that have been out of press for years + previously unreleased tracks, huge tip!!
Deep house music’s most eloquent operators pull together 24 sublime examples of their timeless, widely influential oeuvre c. 1993-1997 in Prescription: Word, Sound, Power, dispensed by the kings at Rush Hour.
Hailing from the Windy City and with both feet firmly planted in Chicago’s club scene since the ‘80s, Prescription came to define house music’s transition from raw, “tracky” minimalism to a more sophisticated, layered and jazz-skooled sound with a seminal run of two dozen, now sought-after releases during its mid ‘90s golden phase - many of which are included in this very necessary box.
Consolidating house music’s Black Atlantic roots in a sensual, psychedelic way unprecedented by its peers, this era of Prescription output set the template for deep house at its most esoteric and enigmatic. Adapting the experimental recording techniques of classic dub and jazz to house music’s rolling grooves, they created an open yet cryptic template woven with vocal samples used as conscious, symbolic reference in a way which elevated the fidelity of the artform to degrees which have rarely been bettered.
Where Virgo Four and Larry Heard laid house’s deepest foundations, it was Prescription’s Ron Trent and Chez Damier, and their pals, who built those foundations into the deep house’s classic landmarks such as the body-melting Morning Factory - if you haven’t heard this at 5am on a good system and under the influence, you haven’t lived! - or the sublime, rugged tension of Ron & Chez D’s Don’t Try It and their skipping arrow Space Riddims, and especially their vocal works such as Ani’s Love Is The Message, or Noni’s Antony-esque grip on the delectable Be My.
If we’ve any gripes, they’ve missed a trick by omitting Ron N Chez’s inimitable dubs to focus almost exclusive on main or vocal mixes, but here’s hoping they’re saving that one for a rainy day in the future. But we’re not complaining; this is an invaluable document of the reasons why so many people have fallen head over heels for house music since the early ‘90s, as much as a reminder of what’s missing, or has become lost ion translation with subsequent generations.
If you’re into anything from 4-Hero to DJ Sprinkles or SND, Calibre, Call Super or Jamal Moss’s more sublime side, you owe yourself some time with this catalogue.
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Shobaleader One present a suite of live versions of Squarepusher classics, drawn from his unparalleled 20 year catalogue.
You get the sense that for Tom Jenkisnon - flanked by his fantasy electro-jazz-pop unit comprising Arg Nution, Company Laser, Sten t’Mech, Strobe Nazard - has been biding his time for this one, and probably got the nudge when AFX knocked out his Computer Controlled Instruments session.
It’s basically how Squarepusher’s music might have sounded if he came of age in the ‘70s jazz fusion era that he deeply fetishises.
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The Border Community mainstay experiences a creative rebirth on a Prurient-featuring fourth album.
‘Providence’ finds Anglia’s pre-eminent exponent of kaleidoscopic techno and pastoral ambient return to the album format after a fallow few years for Fake fans with only the odd 12” for sustenance. The reasons for this? Fake dealing with a prolonged bout of creative block. Clearly that’s behind him as ‘Providence’ finds the UK producer in fine fettle on a first album outside the Border Community coop, landing as a Spring highlight in what is presumably a packed 2017 LP schedule for the Ninja Tune empire.
Named not in honour of the Rhode Island creative hub but rather the Korg Prophecy synth used throughout and the therapeutic energies of music, ‘Providence’ has plenty of punchy, kaleidoscopic Fake-outs to please his fan base. Not least the frenetic, furious synth work and clomping drums of the title track, but it’s not all Sunny-D dappled spiralling Anglian techno.
The undulating dub techno of Fake’s DEGREELESSNESS collaboration features after being issued as a single last year, whilst the luminescent squiggles of The Equator & I and the loose, squalid electro funk SmallCityLights further broaden the scope of ‘Providence.’
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Special edition of one of the year’s standout releases (the limited edition new vinyl pressing comes with an Exclusive bonus CD featuring an additional 50 minutes of music - ‘for harpsichord’ and ‘for pipe organ and string trio’). Having lived with this amazing album for best part of a year, we can confidently say it’s among the strongest in its field, full of radiant joys - we urge you to make some time for it.
On her captivating 4th solo album, Montreal’s Sarah Davachi - highly regarded for her majestic, coruscating synth compositions - divides her attentions equally between a purely instrumental palette of strings, piano, voice and organ with an enveloping, often ecstatic and mystic effect recalling Áine O’Dwyer’s recent Locusts wonder as much as Ellen Fullman’s works for long stringed instruments. We're completely blown away by it.
Rather than mining ancient synth hardware for its unique tones, in All My Circles Run, Davachi applies the same exploratory approach to acoustic instruments with glacially tense results that quietly light up the liminal borderland between the spheres of electronic and acoustic practice when contrasted with her previous recordings. As the title suggests, you can consider these new pieces as discrete strands in a sort of diffracted spectral venn diagram of her sound.
The results will ring true with anyone who has heard her previous releases, while also offering another perspective on her tonal ontology, pin-pointing her acute feel for pealing, plangent overtones in For Strings, which opens out with a raw beauty and scale reaching heights vaguely reminiscent of Áine O’Dwyer’s recent LPs, or by Charlemagne Palestine for that matter, whereas For Voice is a deeply sober, sombre piece again precisely focussed on those fluttering points where consonance/dissonance are near indistinguishable.
The solo piano piece, Chanter follows that slope into lower tones, slowing the heart rate to the point where we can almost perceive the notes as gauzy, keening and candle-flickering blurs, before her sound starts to coalesce in lustrous, upward facing drone in For Organ, burning with a quiet optimism which is sublimated into the exceptional parting passage of For Piano, where the pensile strings, gently cascading keys, and floating organ ebb and flow with a magic intensity redolent of an imagined, smudged meditation by Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Guèbru and Pauline Oliveros.
Incredible work.
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Shed comes up strong on his 4th album of melancholy/ecstatic atmospheres and expert groove control on The Final Experiment for Modeselektor’s Monkeytown.
We’re not sure if he’s doing a Wiley by insinuating that this is indeed his final experiment, or whether it’s a sort of swansong for a sound that has run its conceptual course, but either way his 4th album is a classic-sounding suite of matured, mutable hardcore and AI techno themes.
Between the breathy reverie of Xtra at the prow to the ambient fluffiness of System Azac at stern, he favours a palette of looser breaks, smudged techno patterns and diaphanous, drifting harmonies that don’t so much demand from the listener as cajole a wistful sense of nostalgia.
In that respect, there are some nice soft rave moments in the Link-esque tone float of Extreme SAT, and the buoyant breaks of Er1761, and the nimbly whisked breaks of Flaf2.
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Back in 2010 we said....
Ask us about Shangaan Electro a week ago and we'd ask you to speak slower. Ask us this week and we'll rave about one of the most astounding records we've heard this year.
The erstwhile and intrepid ears of Honest Jon's Mark Ainley and Hardwax/Basic Channel legend Mark Ernestus have been following this niche style from Soweto, SA, for a hot minute, long enough anyway to pick out twelve extraordinary examples of 180bpm, marimba-laden, afro-dance diamonds hewn from rickety drum machines and keyboards shaped into dazzling fillips of pure dance energy. We almost couldn't believe our ears on first listen, or the tenth. It was perhaps only when we witnessed the accompanying videos on youtube that it started to settle into place, watching liquid hipped Shangaan dancers scuttle and stomp like folk possessed by something untold but completely comprehendible.
It's not a large punt to draw distinctions between this and Chicago footwurk or Caribbean Soca styles, from the high tempo velocity to use of basic equipment all deployed with the intention of eliciting faster and more furious dance moves from the participants. Essentially this is a continuation of traditional styles, only plugged in at the studio of Nozinja Music Productions to become utterly electrified and electrifying. But these aren't simply instrumental rhythms, they're also songs with passionate, soul wrenching vocals and head-rushingly sweet synth melodies. Four exemplary contributions from the scene's lynchpin Zinja Hlungwani are worth the entry price alone; from the gripping hypertension of 'Ntombi Ya Mugaza' to the warbling duet of synthesized and human soul in 'Nwa Gezani My Love', or the alien harmonics of 'Nwa Gezani', you're paying to experience a mesmerizing sound that you simply can't hear anywhere outside of Limpopo or low-res youtube clips.
Nozinja is responsible for the breakneck speed of Shangaan Electro, responding to public demand for faster rhythms since opening his studio in 2005, even creating "boy bands" like the boiler-suited and clown mask-wearing Tshetsha Boys and producing for the rest of the artists included here. To be fair, this music is still a totally niche prospect, but initial reactions from friends we would never expect to like it have been as immediate as the music itself and there's no denying this will be one of the years most lauded albums among adventurous listeners.
This is genuinely some of the most exciting music you'll hear this year, and alongside the Footwork/Juke craze currently taking hold, you'll have heard little like it before.
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In 1978 Japan released their debut album Adolescent Sex and kick started a career that would span decades. With Steve Jansen on drums the band enjoyed huge success whilst simultaneously creating a back catalogue of music that still inspires today.
"Fast forward to 2007 and after many years working and collaborating with artists such as Richard Barbieri, Yukihiro Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Bernd Friedmann, Steve released his debut, solo album Slope. Steve Jansen’s second solo album ‘Tender Extinction’ was an evocative blend of songs and instrumentals enlisting some of the singer/songwriters that appeared on Jansen’s previous solo work ‘Slope’.
“The Extinct Suite” is a reinterpretation of the more ambient and orchestral elements of this last album ‘Tender Extinction’. Not a remix by any means, some familiar passages are woven together with additional pieces to create a suite of instrumentals lasting over 55 minutes as one single track."
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After years of flirting with her, Kanding Ray properly commits to the dance floor on Hyper Opal Mantis for his ardent support group at Stroboscopic Artefacts.
Proceeding his split 12” with Rrose, and a slew of well-received albums for Raster-Noton, his 6th LP is destined for clubs, but still nuanced and sculpted enough for gloomy bedrooms and immersive headphone commutes alike.
Operating shades away from recent albums by Ø [Phase] and Sigha, Hyper Opal Mantis gives David Lettelier a.k.a. Kangding Ray room to show off his concrète sound design skills in abstract, yet rolling and heavily functional frameworks, with particular highlights to be discovered in the album’s scudding subaquatic probe, Rubi, as well as the throaty resonance and tight bass hits of Epsilon or the diffracted swang of Onde Mantis.
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There was clearly no shortage of hands in the air when Loren Connors and co put out the call to work on The Hired Hands: A Tribute To Bruce Langhorne, which sports no fewer than 32 pieces inspired by the prolific guitarist’s soundtrack work.
“Compiled by - Dylan Golden Aycock, Loren Connors, Suzanne Langille
We would like to pay homage to one of the greatest and most infamous guitarists alive, Bruce Langhorne. His music has influenced and touched a lot of lives over the years, either through his soundtrack work with Peter Fonda or his studio work in the 1960’s as the go to hired hand for musicians such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Odetta... and many others. If his name is new to you I suggest browsing his wikipedia page to acquaint yourself with the volume of work he accomplished throughout the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Scissor Tail Editions was lucky enough to release Bruce’s score to Peter Fonda’s 1971 anti-western “The Hired Hand”on vinyl in 2012.
The goal here was to ask artists to cover or reinterpret a song of their choice from the soundtrack. No rules on whether the music should be derivative of a certain song, if the soundtrack inspires a mood, then the artists use their intuition.
Bruce has come on hard times in recent years, having suffered a stroke that prevents him from playing the guitar. He’s currently in hospice care awaiting his final curtain call. A large percentage of profit go to Bruce and his family.”
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Shimmering electro-acoustic/new age explorations by an original pioneer of the sound, Marc Barreca (Savant, Young Scientist)
“Marc Barreca’s seventh solo album for Palace of Lights extends his work with a broader and deeper palette of synthesized and sampled sound, including sources as diverse as prepared guitars, pianos, Indonesian metallophones and glass harmonica. The music of Aberrant Lens employs long MIDI delays, synced MIDI processing via MAX for Live and extreme warping of disparate looped sound sources driven into entirely new states.
The results are new, coherent aural structures: music that questions traditional definitions of ambient and electronic forms. And, to the educated ear, within this search for innovation and experimentation Aberrant Lens reveals many of Barreca’s earliest influences. Even when integrated in thoroughly non-retro compositions, the hints of homage to Cluster and the first Fripp & Eno releases inhabit these twelve new settings.
Marc Barreca has been creating and performing electronic music since the mid-1970s. His 1980 album, Twilight, was one of the earliest releases on Palace of Lights. His cassette-era album Music Works for Industry is being reissued by the RVNG spin-off Freedom To Spend, and his early cassette work is included in the upcoming VOD box set American Cassette Culture, which also features Marc’s early electronic music group Young Scientist. His work is included in the collection of The British Library.”
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Eyeless In Gaza’s first four albums, along with a band compiled set of non-album essentials and oddities...
"Originally signed to Cherry Red in 1981, Eyeless in Gaza moved very quickly through four albums of skewed free-pop explorations to become the intriguing, uncomfortable cousin of the brash new wave sound finding its way into the mainstream at the time.
Picture a place where scratchy guitars, synthesizers, primitive rhythms, found sounds, technical experimentation and neo-noise come together to provide a bed for the poetic, exploratory lyrics of Martyn Bates. Oblique, anxious, difficult in places and beautifully detached, their sound captured perfectly the beauty to be found if one cared to rummage through the rubble of a Britain in the midst of industrial collapse."
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Enchanting meeting between acclaimed Trio Mediaeval - Anna Maria Friman (voice, hardangar fiddle), Linn Andrea Fuglseth (voice, shruti box), Berit Opheim (voice) - and virtuoso trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist Arve Henriksen, based on the mutual Viking folk roots of Norway and Iceland.
“Over several summers Trio Mediaeval and trumpeter Arve Henriksen spent many days together by the beautiful Dalsfjorden on the Norwegian west coast, and it was there that most of the music for this recording was born. Fascinated and inspired by Icelandic sagas, beautiful chants, folk songs, religious hymns and fiddle tunes, the quartet has arranged a unique set of songs where improvisation, mediaeval and traditional music from Iceland, Norway and Sweden meet the present.
Henriksen has often performed with Trio Mediaeval in live settings – and the singers and trumpeter appear on Sinikka Langeland’s recent record The Magical Forest – but Rímur is their first extensive collaboration on disc. Rímur was recorded in February 2016 at Munich’s Himmelfahrtskirche, and produced by Manfred Eicher.”
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Expanded 2017 edition Reissue of this long-out-of-print collection of killer reggae versions of original funk and soul classics in a disco style, now including five extra tracks.
"Reggae disco updates of seminal classics by Anita Ward (‘Ring My Bell’), Chaka Khan (‘I’m Every Woman’), Michael Jackson (‘Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough’), Sugarhill Gang (‘Rappers Delight’, here performed by Derrick Laro and Trinity for producer Joe Gibbs) and more, all showing the hidden but inseparable link between the dance floors of New York, Kingston and London.
New bonus tracks to this collection include Derrick Harriott’s funky take on Eddie Drennon’s ‘Do It Nice & Easy’, the classic disco reggae of Risco Connection’s take on McFadden and Whitehead’s ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’ and the London rare groove lovers rock take on Barbara Acklin’s soul classic ‘Am I The Same Girl’."
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Jeff McIlwain re-emerges from his production slumber to deliver more aural candy for the Ghostly family on this new Lusine album.
Further settling into his latter-day groove as a producer of well-polished pop-tinged electronics, the Lusine of nearly 20 years ago has not disappeared altogether, the mechanics of his early IDM, ambient and downtempo productions still drive the creative process on ‘Sensorimotor’.
There is a more introspective yearn to this album however, a sensation most apparent in the numerous vocal contributions from Jeff and his wife, Sarah McIlwain, along with Vilja Larjosto and Benoît Pioulard. The latter’s manipulated vocals feature on the sub-Burial, hushed flutter of Witness which is destined to get synced by the CSI franchise sometime soon.
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"We first spotted Noumen in 2012 and alongside Cygnus was one of the first to be asked to join CPU. Over 4 years later he finally delivers an EP and LP that are a true labour of love. Abstract electronics of the highest order. It's IDM, but with that essential hip hop influence making it immeasurably more addictive and pleasing. With plenty of melody and swing layered over intricate rhythm programming, it leaves listeners stunned."
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‘Everything Is Forgotten’, the new album from Methyl Ethel (Perth, Australia), is a vivid, compelling and mysterious creature, all sinewy, curvaceous pop nuggets and enigmatic currents.
"Written and recorded by frontman Jake Webb, the album was brought to life by acclaimed producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Foals), the pair’s collaboration infusing the band’s shoegaze dream-pop palate with electronic and polyrhythmic flourishes allowing Webb’s keening, gender-fluid vocals and searing poetry to take centre stage..."
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Benjamin John Power explores the inner beast in us all through the typically brash sound design of this Blanck Mass album.
Forever to be known as half of a duo who just don’t f*cking like buttons, Benjamin John Power’s solo body of work as Blanck Mass has continued to gain tractions since his first album back in 2011.
‘World Eater’ continues the Blanck Mass dalliance with Brooklyn outpost Sacred Bones and offers up a screwballed exposition investigating the primal urges of humanity with everything naturally dialled up well past 11. Given the conceptual thrust, it’s no surprise there is a sonic brutality to much of ‘World Eater,’ apparent in the sucker punch that hits you from the first two tracks.
An intricate mesh of clockwork toy melodies and vocal harmonies on John Doe's Carnival of Error proves a falsely sweet opener as it gets consumed by the swirling, violent maelstrom of operatic techno gabber that follows on Rhesus Negative.
Respite comes in the form of Please, which sees Power veering off into sample-heavy MPC beat down reminiscent of early Gold Panda, but he’s soon back into head crunching territory with the 23rd Century glam rock flaunt of The Rat. This very British style of modern sound design applied to electronic music continues as uber-processed vocals crash over vertebrae snapping beats on Silent Treatment, whilst Minnesota / Eas Fors / Naked discards with rhythm to engage in a rainstorm of kinetic energy and searing synth work.
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Exquisite eldritch spooking from Children Of Alice, the trio of Broadcast’s James Cargill and Roj Stevens joined by Julian House, who collaborated with Broadcast on the final album in his guise as The Focus Group. The trio are titled in tribute to Trish Keenan (R.I.P.), the Broadcast co-founder and Cargill’s partner, who named Jonathan Miller’s ‘60s film adaptation of Alice In Wonderland among the band’s main inspirations.
Now conscripted to Broadcast’s erstwhile label, Warp Records, Children of Alice offers a necessary recap of their adventures to date with three pieces previously issued on Folklore Tapes, plus one previously unheard part called The Liminal Space.
The 19 minute invocation, The Harbinger Of Spring was originally their debut side from a split with Mary Arches in 2013. It drowsily sets the rabbit-holing tone for the rest of the record with a glistening miasma of warbling ephemera and beautifully elusive harmonies to put you in the lushest spin.
Rite of the Maypole appeared on Folklore Tapes’ Merry May compilation in 2015 and sounds like a light-headed fever dream rendered in smudged ’60s pastels, at times uncannily recalling parts of Mark Leckey’s Dream English Kid soundtrack, before Invocation of a Midsummer Reverie (from Crown of Light (Midsummer Traditions & Folklore) reaps some real magic from mercurial flurries of tabla, droning ’tronics and suggestively febrile moans.
The one part exclusive to this release, The Liminal Space, is a big highlight of the set, where Radiophonic rustle, avant-jazz gestures and wilting keys share a lysergic, drily dubbed headspace.
What a beauty!?
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‘Book Of Changes’, the new album by Guy Blakeslee as Entrance, is a poetic song cycle about the seasons of the heart, tracing an emotional journey through longing and emptiness to peace and redemption.
The adventurously produced collection of songs is reminiscent of Townes Van Zandt’s ruminative lyricism and the gypsy flavoured orchestral explorations of Arthur Lee and Love, uniquely channelled through Blakeslee’s21st Century approach to the spiritual dimensions of American songwriting in a way that gives an old form new power.
‘Book Of Changes’ follows the release of the ‘Promises’ EP which was supported with a series of live performances including opening for Beach House, Explosions In The Sky and Scott Fagan.
Mixed by David Vandervelde (Father John Misty, Jay Bennett) and Chris Coady (Future Islands, Cass McCombs) with mastering by Grammy nominated engineer Sarah Register (David Bowie, The Shins).  ‘Book Of Changes’ features Blakeslee joined by longtime collaborator Paz Lenchantin (Pixies, Silver Jews) and percussionist Frank Lenz (Pedro The Lion, The Weepies)."
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Pinch & Sherwood emerge from last years’s Late Night Endless with a 2nd shock of tunes, Man vs Sofa, pitching their unparalleled studio nous on 11 cuts of cranky atmosphere and spliff-bending bass pressure.
Man vs Sofa sees Sherwood’s original, wide-open On-U Sound aesthetic updated thru Pinch’s up-to-the minute production palette and accompanied by a roll call including Lee Scratch Perry, Martin Duffy (Primal Scream), Taz (Def Jam), and Skip McDonald (The Sugarhill Gang, Tackhead, Little Axe) for extra vibes.
Under the ambiguous title Man vs Sofa - are they encouraging you to get off your arse, or trying to put you on it? - the duo serve up some of their most diverse, textured and fractious arrangements, all trustingly helmed in massive, physical basslines; stepping from anxious dread feels in Roll Call to a noisy, murderous version of Pinch’s Retribution via a sweetboy cover of Ryuichi Nakamoto’s Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and a typically mystic turn from Lee Perry on Lies.
Heavy UK dub in effect.
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Preeminent sound artist Florian Hecker investigates the uncanny valley of perception between man/machine in the experimental auditory drama A Script For Machine Synthesis, featuring main vocals by Charlotte Rampling, and completing his trilogy of collaborations with philosopher Reza Negarestani after Chimärisation (2012), and Articulação (2014).
Aesthetically, A Script For Machine Synthesis delivers all the pervasive electronic sensation and perversion you’d hope for from a Hecker recording; most notably including passages of clammy subbass which we’ve hardly haven’t heard in his palette since IT ISO161975 (1998), strangely enough applied to the perfectly plummy tones of polyglot actress and chanteuse Charlotte Rampling, oscillating between untreated recital and a deeply unsettling synthetic voice designed by Rob Clark and the Centre for Speech Research Technology, University of Edinburgh.
Unfortunately the digital files don’t include the perfume designed for the original installation of A Script For Machine Synthesis, but we can safely say that the piece’s potential for synaesthetic appeal in rarely paralleled.
It’s another real headful, highly recommended to listeners looking for life affirming/probing sonic sensations.
**From the label**
“The latest work from Florian Hecker A Script for Machine Synthesis is an experimental auditory drama and a model of abstraction. A Script for Machine Synthesis presents a complex simplicity that spirals in an unending manner as an audio image of the uncanny valley. It is the third chapter in the trilogy of text-sound pieces Hecker has collaborated with the philosopher Reza Negarestani. A resynthesized voice outlines procedure as procedure itself unfolds.
The suggestive encounter with a pink ice cube is a conceptual point of departure for a scene in which linguistic chimeras of descriptors are materialized through synthetic trophies, mental props and auditory objects.
Hecker presents a synthesis of the gap in the valley which we almost know. The motifs Hecker has staged in the last decade, the text, the sound, the scent, the obelisk, the demon, the self, the other all appear throughout in a thorough, rigid and formal exploration.
Exeunt all human actors, A Script for Machine Synthesis is an experiment in putting synthetic emptiness back into synthetic thought.”
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Hervè Atsè Corti reaffirms his commitment to the Planet Mu cause on a fifth album.
The addition of Herva to the Planet Mu roster back in their 20th anniversary year was a welcome surprise and it’s great to see how the Florence producer has developed since then. The cannily-titled Hyper Flux follows Herva’s under-rated Mu debut, Kila, and reaffirms his natural talent for fractured, chaotic yet sharply realised electronic music that is far too devilish for the genre police.
Forever a producer willing to rip up the script in the name of creativity, Hyper Flux finds Herva grappling with incorporating live instruments into his array of recording methods. In truth, this just furthers the potential for sonic disarray which Herva explores with abandon across twelve tracks that investigate guzzling braindance, naughty boogie, broken house, slanted footwork, frayed ambient and more.
More than ever before for a collection of Herva cuts, these thrillingly unpredictable deviations within the course of the album leave you with a slab of music that really reveals it’s true beauty with time. Hyper Flux feels like Herva confidently brushing off the artistic comparisons people have previously made, edging ever closer to a style and sound that can only really be classified as his own.
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Incredible, previously unreleased early 1980's Algerian synth electronic by Ahmed Malek, compiled by Flako.
Remarkable discovery of late ‘70s/early ’80s avant ambient electronics from Arabic North Africa; originally conceived as demos or private studies by Ahmed Malek (1931-2008) - “Algeria’s answer to Ennio Morricone” - and now faithfully edited and buffed up for release by Flako. Imagine Dariush Dolat-Shahi turned into jazzy concrète mosaics by NWW and you’ve almost got a grasp of this record’s slippery wonder.
The Electronic Tapes follows Habibi Funk’s prized vinyl reissue of Malek’s Musique Originale De Films [2016] with an unprecedented peek inside the boxes of Malek’s master tapes that were recently discovered by his family in Algiers during the soundtrack reissue process. As the tapes were effectively unfinished demos and the artist isn’t around to consult anymore, electronic producer Flako has capably stepped in to polish them off, adding only subtle flourishes of era-compatible Roland SH-2000 and Korg MS20 to sympathetically bring Malek’s electro-acoustic tapestries to life, and in a way that we can only imagine he would be pleased with.
Ostensibly sounding like some home-made new age excursion from late ‘70s Europe or North America, it’s the recurring presence of authentically Arabic scales and percussive patterns which identify this set beyond some obscure cosmic library LP from Italy or France, and closer to the rare experiments with jazz and electronics - such as Dariush Dolat-Shahi, Salah Ragab, or Ilhan Mimaroglu - from Arabic North Africa and the Middle East that we’re familiar with.
But even still, Flako’s post-processed results form a strange anachronism unto itself, skilfully weaving his improvisations on the original material in an innovative and subtle way that makes it tricky, and perhaps pointless, to distinguish between the dates of recording or who did what. Maybe it’s best left to Flako to sum the project up as: “ It’s Ahmed’s music… If anything, I feel like a member of his band, you know? I’m a part of this. That’s roughly how I see it.”
Stretched across space and time and fleshed out with imagination, the 17 tracks are just crammed with charmingly wild and kinetic ideas, setting out with a squinted synth vision recalling The Godfather theme sent into orbit, before constantly mutating thru cinematic strokes to insectoid jazz scuttle, romantic downbeats, haywire astral synth jabs and whirligig dances by the album’s close, with each allowing X amount of room for the original piece’s experimental nature and fractious arrangements.
Basically it’s not a straight-up reissue, nor is it an new recording; it’s something else and brilliant with it.
Highly Recommended!
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‘Hopes Of Failure’ is the unrelenting, mammoth-riffed Thrill Jockey debut from crushing doom trio Aseethe.
"Aseethe’s unrelenting slow doom is often compared to drone music because of its core repetitions. This distinctly non-metal approach combined with harsh vocals and unusual samples gives Aseethe a unique voice among metal’s boundary pushers.
On ‘Hopes Of Failure’ the Iowa band’s primary influences of doom and drone share a similar ethos but rarely do they converge with as much restraint and patience, drawing on inventive sound sources and distorted, just enough, to add some sludge. Aseethe is the direction that heavy music is moving in.
Since the band’s inception, Aseethe has been dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a heavy band. Their pummelling and extended pieces are as enveloping as a drive through the Iowa cornfields of their home. Their drone influence and the dark lenses through which they view the world are a confluence of ingredients that are at once deliberate, devastating and exhilarating.
Recently Aseethe have toured with the likes of Hell, Fister and UN. Aseethe, while up to now a secret to the larger music world, have long been a favourite of inventive heavy artists. They have played regionally with Yob, Converge, The Body, SUMAC, Thou, Horseback and Inter Arma, to
name a few."
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Fade To Mind boss lad and Kelea producer, Kingdom, comes up strong with a debut album of signature, moody R&B bangers featuring guest vox by Syd The Internet, Najee Daniels, and Top Dawg Ents’ SZA on six of its eleven cuts.
Prefaced by lead single, Nothin feat. Syd, which appears here in its lush original and bouncing club mixes, Tears In The Club works like a proper album rather than mixtape or a clutch of singles. It mostly operates at a sultry pace, warming up with the future soul glow of What Is Love, the warped club bump of Each & Every Day, and if we’re not mistaken, a snippet of Dawn Richard tweaked into the slow-mo R&B trance of Nurtureworld.
Shaker provides the only male vocal on the record, tucked into the tri-step tics of Breathless, whilst the title track gives up its heaviest club pressure, but our favourites come at the other end, with the weightless instrumental dip of Timex.
The production is diaphanous yet detailed, matched by economical but opulent arrangements and song-writing that future-proof Tears In The Club for time to come.
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Featuring members of Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day, Steve Gunn Band and Tweedy
“A sense of place has been essential to the music of Brokeback since guitarist/bassist Douglas McCombs first launched the project in 1995. Initially conceived as a solo outlet, the Chicago group has taken on new dimensions over the past two decades, morphing from the lean, pastoral ambience of the first album, Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table, to the more muscular, taut arrangements and dynamic swells of the last release, Brokeback and the Black Rock, for which McCombs assembled a new quartet lineup. Each album develops with exacting detail, revealing McCombs’s gift for dialling in the essence of a mood, feeling, or distant locale with a handful of reverb-laden guitar tones, elegant and sustained, strategically placed and sparingly deployed. The instrumental landscapes he creates on Illinois River Valley Blues are utterly transportive, evoking familiar open-frontier soundtracks and charting out new sonic territory.
Several songs feature lush, multi-layered vocals by Amalea Tshilds (the Paulina Hollers), who made a deep impression on McCombs with a spellbinding a cappella performance a couple years ago. “I often imagine female vocals on Brokeback records, but I wanted it to be someone that I have personal history with, someone who can nail it, not to mention someone who I know digs the music,” he says. “That's why Mary Hansen sang on all those earlier records and why I wanted Lea for this.”
McCombs’s singular approach to guitar and bass, characteristic of his work with Tortoise, is expertly enhanced here by James Elkington (Tweedy, Steve Gunn) on second guitar (moving over from drums on the last record). The two salute one of McCombs’s favorite bands, Television, with latticed dual leads on the stately yet aggressive “On the Move and Vanishing,” while Elkington’s subtle layers of pedal steel and organ burnish more ruminative forays like “Andalusia, IL” and “Ursula.” Their intertwining flights are anchored by the sturdy yet versatile rhythm team of bassist Pete Croke (Exit Verse, Tight Phantomz) and drummer Areif Sless-Kitain (the Eternals), the newest member of Brokeback.
Illinois River Valley Blues is a winding, wistful travelogue that not only captures darker textures but mines their depths. That’s been part of McCombs’s vision for Brokeback from the start: “To me a song is not worth writing if it doesn't have a strong sense of melancholy,” he says.”
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Who are we now, in the era of the internet? Former Americanmen artist Sevendeaths looks to answer this on his new album of hi-def power ambient for Luckyme.
Edinburgh-based musician Steven Shade expands on the VST-centric grandiosity of his 2013 debut Sevendeaths set ‘Concreté Misery’ with this rather enveloping new album for the Luckyme crew.
A certain cinematic quality has always been evident in the Sevendeaths sound, but he really ups the ante on ‘Remote Sympathy,’ the ten tracks benefitting from the inclusion of natural sound sources via spectral resynthesis and sampling techniques and contributions from Rafe Fitzpatrick and Iban Perez.
Fans of Jóhann Jóhannsson and the recent output on Subtext should pay attention as Sevendeaths really captures a stunning snapshot of expertly crafted drone and power ambient geared as “both a celebration of life and human strength and an acceptance of the frailty of the human spirit.”
The conceptual nature of the album doesn’t weigh too heavily on the music however, this is no forlorn exercise in noise brutality; rather the moments of darkness act as brief interludes to Shade’s undoubted capacity to sculpt and orchestrate synthesis of shimmering incandescence.
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A salve for folk souls and whoever needs it; Ben Chasny makes acoustic folk-pop great again.
“In preparing for the first album of non-Hexadic Six Organs of Admittance music since 2012’s Ascent, Ben Chasny had a think about what he’d be saying in his own tongue for the first time in a half-decade. As ever, a head-full of ideas were driving him to think and speak music as a spirituality superimposed onto a reality, with the ghosts of both whispering at each other. In the end, what sits in our listening ears is the sound of communion. Burn- ing the Threshold brings a wealth of Six Organs-styled lightness into one of his sweetest musical meditations yet.
With a spacious acoustic soundstage, Burn- ing the Threshold may actually more resemble 2011’s Asleep on the Flood- plain. Or it may more resemble Compathia, or School of the Flower. All of this is speculative, comparative, unverifiable — but our sense of what is true tells us that nobody plays acoustic music quite like Six Organs of Admittance, and that furthermore, nothing sounds so much like Burning the Threshold as Burning the Threshold.
Ben is in a particularly expansive mood this time around, singing and playing while thinking of birds in the morning, anarchy, Third Ear Band, Gaston Bachelard, The Gnostics, Ronnie Lane and/or The Faces, Deleuze, Aaron Cheak, Odysseus, This Heat, Takoma Records, St Eustace, Dark Noontide and a HELL of a lot more than that, with all the thoughts affixed to a quiver of potent melodies launching forth and arcing out through dimensions, seeking infinite space.
The space radiates out from the album’s first moment, with “Things As They Are,” a song examining the life of poet Wallace Stevens. Ben’s currently working on music for a theatrical work about Stevens’ life set to debut in Cleveland later in 2017. The empathetic waves generated by this song resonate throughout the album, giving a new dimension to the music of Six Organs of Admittance.
Like so many other Six Organs records, Burning the Threshold was created mostly solo, but features the singing talents of Alex Nielsen, Haley Fohr and Damon and Naomi; the drumming of Chris Corsano; a guitar duet with Ryley Walker, and keys and mixing from Cooper Crain. With this new music, Ben Chasny has created a potent tonic for our times. The gentleness found here, balanced on top of his classical asceticism, provides much of what we need in 2017 and beyond: love, forgiveness, reality and an ever-wider view, with the understanding of our circular path in this lifetime. Looking at the world through clear eyes beneath a knitted brow, but with a laugh rising up from its heart, Burning the Threshold brings us a powerful draught of essence.”
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Since 2001, Alasdair Roberts has busily pursued the path of his ancestors, down the many and varied byways of Scottish traditional music - and of English and Irish traditional music as well, all of which have fed the American folk tradition from its earliest days.
"Over the past 15 years, Alasdair has released eight albums of self-written material and interpretations of traditional song alike, all played in a diversity of electric and acoustic arrangements, bringing a modern thrust to the music while honouring the many singers from whom this material was learned and adapted.
Following the acoustic austerity of his self-titled 2015 release, Alasdair’s applied himself to electric guitar and band once again for his ninth album, ‘Pangs’.  Recorded in Ireland with Julie MacLarnon, ‘Pangs’ finds Alasdair in a power trio beside his long-time musical partners Alex Neilson on drums and Stevie Jones on bass (and he turns his hand to piano and organ too). Along with guests Debbie Armour, Tom Crossley, Rafe Fitzpatrick and Jessica Kerr, they summon up a powerful - and powerfully gorgeous - storm over ten new songs.
With ‘The Angry Laughing God’ and ‘The Downward Road’, Alasdair delivers two of his most driving pieces. Following that he turns around and plays two of his most touching ballads (and our lad’s had a lot of them over the years) in ‘Wormwood And Gall’ and ‘Scarce Of Fishing’. Additionally, the album is launched with the eponymous track ‘Pangs’ in what we hear to be a remarkable evocation of the 60s and 70s folk-rockers of the British Isles - the electric warriors of Fairport Convention, the Battlefield Band, Planxty, Richard Thompson and so many significant others."
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Sun Ra: piano; John Gilmore: tenor sax; Marshall Allen: alto sax; Pat Patrick: baritone sax; Robert Cummings: baritone clarinet; Teddy Nance: trombone; Ali Hassan: trombone; Clifford Jarvis: drums; Ronnie Boykins: bass, tuba; James Jackson: log drum, flute; Carl Nimrod: sun horn, gong.
"The 1965 sessions that produced the original two volumes of Heliocentric Worlds came during the most extremely free-form period of Ra's career, contemporaneous with The Magic City (Saturn Records). Volume 1, recorded in April with an 11-member band, consists of seven relatively short tracks (none over eight minutes); these tracks find Sun Ra breaking ground by using synthesizers and having the Arkestra musicians double on percussion. Recorded in November with an octet, Volume 2, in contrast, was much freer and featured the side-long "The Sun Myth" and the 15-minute "Cosmic Chaos."
The horn players and legendary bassist Ronnie Boykins have plenty of room to stretch out and take full advantage. "A House of Beauty" offers five minutes of relatively lyrical respite between the other tracks. When ESP-Disk' resumed issuing new releases in 2005, Sun Ra archivist Michael D. Anderson resurrected another five tracks from the November session to create Volume 3, featuring the powerful "Intercosmosis."
"...the two Heliocentric Worlds albums, both recorded in 1965, appeared on the iconoclastic ESP-Disk label, and propagated his music to a wider audience of listeners who were open to freakiness. Both volumes are improvisations by subgroups of the Arkestra (directed by Ra), and even at their most dissonant, they're playful and spacious — 'Dancing in the Sun' is off-the-cuff big-band swing. 'The Sun Myth' is a panoramic 18-minute fantasia in which two or three instruments at a time toss long, buzzing tones and high honks back and forth, then fall out of orbit again." – Douglas Wolk, #9 on Spin's "The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s
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you before any package is re-sent.

Delivery Times

The delivery times below are estimates. A lot depends on the
efficiency of your local post service.

Royal Mail:

UK (inc. Northern Ireland): 1 - 2 working days
Western Europe: 3 - 5 working days
Eastern Europe: 5 - 12 working days
Rest of World: 5 - 10 working days

Courier:

UK (inc. Northern Ireland): 1 working day except for highlands
of Scotland and parts of Scotland, please get in touch for
further information.

Western Europe: 2-3 working days for most countries but takes
longer shipping to Finland, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

Eastern Europe: 3-6 working days for most countries but can take up
to 7 days for other countries, please get in touch for further
information.

Rest of World: 2-7 working days for most countries, please get in
touch for further information

Please note shipping times can vary within a country depending
on the area - for further information please get in touch.

Please note that the estimated shipping times above can be
affected by circumstances beyond our control such as bad
weather, delays at customs, busy times of year etc.

Contact Us

If you require further information or assistance then
please contact us.

Stock Status

Physical Products have different types of stock availability, for example:

In Stock (Ready to ship)
Pre-Order with estimated shipping dates
Available to Order (Estimated shipping between 1-3 working days)
Available to Order (Estimated shipping between 3-7 working days)
Available to Order (Estimated shipping between 7-14 working days)

If your order contains items that have different estimated shipping
dates you will be given an option either to wait for everything to
become available to ship in one package, or to ship each item as soon
as it becomes available. Stock arrives at the office throughout the
day so the stock status of items on the website can change several
times a day.

Important Note: all items that are not currently displaying as In Stock
need to be ordered in from our suppliers and the estimated shipping
dates are only an indication of when we expect those items to come
into stock. If there are any unforeseen issues with availability we
will notify you immediately.

Insurance

Premium Packaging

At checkout you are able to select a
premium packaging
option for a fee of £1.50. We pack all of our orders
using appropriate packaging, however when you pick this
option we use a wider cruciform offering additional
protection if you have a particularly heavy-handed postman.

CVV code

Terms & Conditions

TERMS & CONDITIONS OF WEBSITE USE AND SUPPLY

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE

TERMS OF WEBSITE USE

This terms of use (together with the documents referred to in it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website http://boomkat.com/ (our site), whether as a guest or a registered user. Use of our site includes but is not limited to accessing, browsing , purchasing from or registering to use our site.

Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use our site, as these will apply to your use of our site. We recommend that you print a copy of this for future reference.

By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms of use, please do not use our site.

OTHER APPLICABLE TERMS

These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:

Our Privacy Policy (www.boomkat.com/privacy), which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

Our Cookie Policy (www.boomkat.com/privacy) which sets out information about the use of cookies on our site.

If you purchase goods or non-physical copies of recordings from our site, our Terms and Conditions of Supply (see below) will apply to the sales.

INFORMATION ABOUT US

Boomkat.com is a site operated by Boomkat Limited ("We", “Us”, “Our”). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 5725006. Both our registered office address and trading address is at 2nd Floor Swan Building, 20 Swan Street, Manchester, M4 5JM. Our VAT number is GB 693 0821 25, and for Boomkat Digital Limited is GB 884 6350 90

We are a limited company.

CHANGES TO THESE TERMS

We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page.

Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you.

CHANGES TO OUR SITE

We may update our site from time to time, and may change the content at any time. However, please note that any of the content on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update it.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will be free from errors or omissions.

ACCESSING OUR SITE

Our site is made available free of charge.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted.

Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our site without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

REGISTRATION

When purchasing goods from Us or using the Service which is provided by Boomkat Digital Limited (“Digital”) you will be given the option to register by providing us with certain information including a member (user) name, a password and a valid email address ("Registration Data"). If you take up this option you agree to provide accurate Registration Data and to update your Registration Data as necessary to keep it accurate. We and Digital will keep and use your Registration Data in accordance with our Privacy Policy (www.boomkat.com/privacy) which forms part of these Conditions. You agree that you will not allow others to use your username, password and/or account and you are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your account. You agree to notify Us at contact@boomkat.com immediately of any unauthorised use of your password and/or account. Neither Us nor Digital shall be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorised use of your Registration Data and/or account and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Us, Digital, their officers, partners, parents, subsidiaries, agents, affiliates and/or licensors, as applicable, for any improper, unauthorised or illegal uses of the same.

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it (with the exception of those relating to the Service which are the property of Digital). Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

The Service may be protected under patent law and may be the subject of issued patents and/or pending patent applications.

Non-physical copies of recordings may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, broadcast, downloaded, transmitted, adapted or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without the express prior written consent of Digital.

NO RELIANCE ON INFORMATION

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up-to-date.

LIMITATION OF OUR LIABILITY

Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our site or any content on it, whether express or implied.

We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

use of, or inability to use, our site; or

use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.

If you are a business user, please note that in particular, we will not be liable for:

loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;

business interruption;

loss of anticipated savings;

loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or

any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

If you are a consumer user, please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.

Different limitations and exclusions of liability will apply to liability arising as a result of the supply of any goods by use to you, which will be set out in our Terms and Conditions of Supply (set out below).
VIRUSES

We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform in order to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

If you wish to make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact us at contact@boomkat.com

THIRD PARTY LINKS AND RESOURCES IN OUR SITE

Our site may present links to third party websites not owned or operated by Us or Digital. These links are provided for your information only.

Neither We nor Digital are responsible for the availability of these sites or their contents. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources and You agree that neither We nor Digital are responsible nor liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with your use of or reliance on any content of any such site or goods or services available through any such site.

TRADE MARKS

"BOOMKAT" is a Community Trade Mark

CONTACT US

To contact us, please email contact@boomkat.com

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SUPPLY

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

By placing an order on our site you accept these terms and conditions ("the Conditions").

Each of Us and Digital (as the case may be) reserve the right to make changes to the Conditions relevant to them at any time and you will be subject to the relevant Conditions as published on the Website at the time you place your order.

For the avoidance of doubt in respect of Digital the Conditions applicable below constitute a legal contract between you and Digital governing your use of Digital's online music download sales service ("the Service”).

PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO SALES OF PHYSICAL GOODS BY US

2. CONTRACT

2.1 Our shopping pages will guide you through the steps you need to take to place an order with us. Our order process allows you to check and amend any errors before submitting your order to us. Please take the time to read and check your order at each page of the order process.

2.2 After you place an order, you will receive an e-mail from us acknowledging that we have received your order. However, please note that this does not mean that your order has been accepted. Our acceptance of your order will take place as described in clause 2.3

2.3 We will confirm our acceptance to you by sending you an e-mail [that confirms that the goods you have ordered (“the Goods”) have been dispatched. The Contract between us will only be formed when we send you the Dispatch Confirmation.

2.4 If we are unable to supply you with the Goods, for example because the Goods are not in stock or no longer available or because we cannot meet your requested delivery date or because of an error in the price on our site as referred to in clause 3, we will inform you of this by e-mail and we will not process your order. If you have already paid for the Goods, we will refund you the full amount including any delivery costs charged as soon as possible.

3. PRICING & DELIVERY CHARGES

3.1 The prices of goods will be as quoted on our site at the time you submit your order. We use our best efforts to ensure that the prices of goods are correct at the time when the relevant information was entered onto the system. However please see clause 3.5 for what happens if we discover an error in the price of goods.

3.2 Prices for our goods may change from time to time, but changes will not affect any order you have already placed.

3.3 The price of goods includes VAT (where applicable) at the applicable current rate chargeable in the UK for the time being.

3.4 The price of goods does not include delivery charges. Our delivery charges are as advised to you during the check-out process, before you confirm your order. To check relevant delivery charges and options please add items to your crate, choose the shipping destination and delivery service you would like to use and a shipping cost will be displayed.

3.5 Our site contains a large number of goods. It is always possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the goods on our site may be incorrectly priced. If we discover an error in the price of the Goods we will contact you to inform you of this error and we will give you the option of continuing to purchase the Goods at the correct price or cancelling your order. We will not process your order until we have your instructions. If we are unable to contact you using the contact details you provided during the order process, we will treat the order as cancelled and notify you in writing. Please note that if the pricing error is obvious and unmistakeable and could have reasonably been recognised by you as a mispricing, we do not have to provide the Goods to you at the incorrect (lower) price.

4. AVAILABILITY

All orders are subject to availability.

5. YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL THE CONTRACT

5.1 You may cancel your contract with us for goods you order at any time up to the end of the seventh working day from the date you receive the ordered goods. You do not need to give us any reason for cancelling your contract nor will you have to pay any penalty.

5.2 You cannot cancel your contract if the goods you have ordered are newspapers or magazines or if you have taken any audio or video recording or computer software out of the sealed package in which it was delivered to you

5.3 To cancel your contract you must notify us in writing

5.4 If you have received the goods before you cancel your contract then unless, under clause 5.2 you do not have a right to cancel, you must send the goods back to our contact address at your own cost and risk.

5.5 If you cancel your contract but we have already processed the goods for delivery you must not unpack the goods when they are received by you and you must send the goods back to us at our contact address at your own cost and risk as soon as possible.

5.6 On receipt of the returned goods we will refund you the amount charged for the goods in question (excluding delivery charges) within 30 days

6. OUR RIGHT TO CANCEL THE CONTRACT

6.1 We reserve the right to cancel the contract between us if:

6.1.1 we have insufficient stock to deliver the goods you have ordered

6.1.2 we do not deliver to your area; Or

6.1.3 one or more of the goods you ordered was listed at an incorrect price due to a typographical error or an error in the pricing information received by us from our suppliers

6.2 If we cancel your contract we will notify you by email and will credit to your account any sum deducted by us from your credit card or paypal as soon as possible but in any event within 30 days of your order. We will not be obliged to offer any additional compensation for disappointment suffered.

7 DELIVERY OF GOODS TO YOU

7.1 We will deliver the goods ordered by you to the address you give us for delivery at the time you make your order.

7.2 Delivery will be made as soon as possible after your order is accepted

7.3 You will become the owner of the goods you have ordered when they have been delivered to you. Once goods have been delivered to you they will be held at your own risk and we will not be liable for their loss or destruction.

8. LIABILITY

8.1 If the goods we deliver are not what you ordered or are damaged or defective or the delivery is of an incorrect quantity, we shall have no liability to you unless you notify us in writing at our contact address of the problem within 10 working days of the delivery of the goods in question.

8.2 If you do not receive the goods ordered within 30 days of the date of the Dispatch Confirmation we shall have no liability to you unless you notify us in writing at our contact address. Please do this within 2 weeks after this 30 day period expires.

8.3 If you notify a problem to us under clauses 8.1 or 8.2 above, our only obligation will be, at your option:

1. to make good any shortage or non-delivery;

2. to replace or repair any goods that are damaged or defective; or

3. to refund to you the amount paid by you for the goods in question in whatever way we choose.

8.4 Save as precluded by law, we will not be liable to you for any indirect or consequential loss, damage or expenses (including loss of profits, business or goodwill) howsoever arising out of any problem you notify to us under this condition and we shall have no liability to pay any money to you by way of compensation other than to refund to you the amount paid by you for the goods in question under clause 8.3.3 above.

8.5 You must observe and comply with all applicable regulations and legislation, including obtaining all necessary customs, import or other permits to purchase goods from our site. The importation or exportation of certain of our goods to you may be prohibited by certain national laws. We make no representation and accept no liability in respect of the export or import of the goods you purchase.

8.6 Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in these terms and conditions is intended to limit any rights you might have as a consumer under applicable local law or other statutory rights that may not be excluded nor in any way to exclude or limit our liability to you for any death or personal injury resulting from our negligence.

9. DUTIES AND TAXES

If you order goods for delivery overseas from our site you will be responsible for any import duties and taxes.

PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO THE SERVICE AS OPERATED BY DIGITAL

11. THE SERVICE

(a) The Service allows you to listen to Clips (as defined below) and buy non-physical digital sound recordings, artwork and information relating to such sound recordings, and other content (collectively, "Music Content").

12. MUSIC CONTENT

(a) RIGHTS GRANTED: Upon payment for the Music Content, Digital grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Music Content only for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use subject to this agreement.

(b) RESTRICTIONS TO RIGHTS GRANTED: The Music Content is owned by Digital, its business partners, affiliates and/or licensors, as applicable. You must comply with all applicable copyright and other laws in your use of the Music Content. Except as set out in clause 11 (a) above you may not or allow others to redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, sub-licence or otherwise transfer or use the Music Content. Digital does not grant you any synchronisation, public performance, promotional use, commercial sale, re-sale, reproduction or distribution rights for the Music Content. You agree to advise Digital promptly of any such unauthorised use(s).

13. USE OF THE SERVICE:

(a ) USE OF MUSIC CONTENT: You agree that the content rights holders that license their musical or other content to Digital for use in the Service are intended third-party beneficiaries under these Conditions with the right to enforce the provisions that directly concern their content. You understand that your use of the Music Content is subject to the Usage Rules discussed below.

(b) SOFTWARE: All software made available by Digital on or through the Service is protected by intellectual property laws and your use of it is governed by these conditions as well as any applicable end-user licence agreements.

(c) USAGE RULES: Your access to and/or use of any Music Content will be limited by the rules assigned to the Music Content by Digital ("Usage Rules") and described in this section. You may not attempt (or support others' attempts) to circumvent, reverse engineer, decrypt, or otherwise alter or interfere with any Usage Rules or Music Content. Digital reserves the right to modify the Usage Rules at any time and your continued use of the Service after each such modification shall be deemed acceptance of any such modification.

A "Clip" is a portion of a track or promotional music video that you can play (and, if applicable, view) directly from and while you are logged on to the Service on a promotional basis at no cost to you. You may play as many Clips as you like.

You may not attempt (or support others' attempts) to capture, copy, or download a Clip.

(d) PRODUCT AVAILABILITY: Technical problems or expiry of Digital's right to make certain Music Content available may at times delay or prevent delivery of purchased Music Content to you. Receipt of your order or request does not guarantee that Digital can supply the selected products to you. All of the Music Content featured as part of the Service is subject to availability. Your sole remedy with respect to content or purchased Music Content not delivered will be a refund of the price paid for such Music Content

(e) RESTRICTIONS ON USE: You may not use the Service to transmit, display, perform or otherwise make available any messages, content or materials (i) that are illegal, obscene, pornographic, inflammatory, threatening, of a "spamming" nature, defamatory, or invasive of privacy; (ii) that constitute political campaigning or commercial solicitation or that contain software viruses or other computer code designed to interfere with the functionality of any computer systems; or (iii) that infringe third party rights or harm minors in any way. Digital will fully co-operate with any appropriate authority or Court order requesting or directing Digital to disclose the identity of anyone posting any such information or materials. You may not interfere with or disrupt the Service or any networks connected to or by the Service. In addition, you may not use a false email address or otherwise mislead Digital or other members as to your identity or to the origin of a message or content. By posting messages, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication through the Service, you agree that Digital may copy, sublicense, adapt, transmit, publicly perform or display any such content to provide and/or promote the Service subject always to applicable legal restrictions, and/or to respond to any legal requirement, claim or threat. If Digital's use of such content exploits any proprietary rights you may have in such material, you agree that Digital has an unrestricted, royalty-free, non-exclusive and perpetual worldwide right to use such material as described above. You agree that any loss or damage of any kind that you incur as a result of the use of any messages, content or material that you upload, post, transmit, display or otherwise make available through your use of the Service is solely your responsibility.

(f) All rights not expressly granted are reserved to Digital and/or its licensors.

14. CHARGES / BILLING

(a) AGREEMENT TO PAY: You agree to pay for all Music Content that you purchase through the Service and Digital may charge your debit, credit card or Paypal account for any such payment(s). Digital may, in its discretion, post charges to your credit card individually or may aggregate your charges with other purchases you make on the Service. You are responsible for keeping your Digital account secure and confidential and you will be responsible for any charges that are incurred by any person through your account. All charges will be billed to the payment method you designate when you first make a purchase or incur a charge. All prices include VAT (where applicable) at the current rates chargeable in the UK for the time being

(b) RIGHT TO CHANGE PRICES: All prices for products within the Service are subject to change by Digital at any time. While Digital tries to ensure that all prices on our site are accurate, errors may occur. If Digital discovers an error in the price of any goods or services you have ordered it will give you the option of reconfirming your order at the correct price or cancelling it. If Digital is unable to contact you it will treat the order as cancelled.

(c) ELECTRONIC CONTRACTS: You agree that any submissions you make for electronic purchases constitute your intent and agreement to be bound by the terms of and to pay for such purchases. To the extent that such electronic purchases are offered to you by a third party, you acknowledge that Digital shall not be responsible or liable to you for the products or services purchased.

(d) CANCELLATION: You cannot cancel your purchase of Digital Downloads once delivery has started. By placing an order to purchase Digital Downloads using the Service you acknowledge and agree to this.

15. EXPLICIT CONTENT

Digital shall have no liability or responsibility to you for any content or materials, including Stickered Tracks, that may be available in connection with the Service that you might find offensive, indecent or objectionable.

16. INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

If Digital receives a notice alleging that you have engaged in behaviour that infringes Digital's or any other party's intellectual property rights or reasonably suspects the same, Digital may suspend or terminate your account without notice to you. If Digital suspends or terminates your account under this paragraph, it shall have no liability or responsibility to you, including for any amounts that you have previously paid.

17. PROMOTIONS AND ADVERTISING

Digital and/or its business partners may present advertisements or promotional materials on or through the Service. Your participation in any promotional event is subject to the terms and conditions associated with that event. Your dealings with, or participation in promotions by, any third party advertisers on or through the Service are solely between you and such third party. You agree that Digital shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any kind incurred by you as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such third parties on the Service.

18. MODIFICATIONS TO THE SERVICE

Digital reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice to you, without any liability to you or to any third party.

19. REMEDIES

You agree that any unauthorised use of the Service, the Music Content or any related software or materials may result in irreparable injury to Digital and/or its affiliates or licensors for which money damages would be inadequate, and in such event Digital, its affiliates and/or licensors, as applicable, shall have the right, in addition to other remedies available at law and in equity, to seek immediate injunctive relief against you. Nothing contained in these Conditions shall be construed to limit the remedies available pursuant to statutory or other legal authority that Digital, its affiliates and/or licensors may have.

20. DISCLAIMERS

You understand and agree that your use of the Service and Music Content is at your own sole risk. The Service and Music Content (the "Products") are provided "as is" and without warranty by Digital or its agents, employees, parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, licensors, business partners and/or suppliers (the "Digital Entities"), as applicable, and, to the maximum extent allowed by applicable law, the Digital Entities expressly disclaim all warranties, express or implied including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and any warranty of non-infringement. The Digital Entities do not warrant, guarantee, or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the Products with respect to performance, accuracy, reliability, security capability or otherwise. You will not hold any Digital Entity responsible for any damages that result from you accessing the Service or using the Products including, but not limited to, damage to any computer, software or systems or portable devices you use to access the same. No oral or written information or advice given by any person shall create a warranty in any way whatsoever relating to any of the Digital Entities.

Digital makes no warranty that any particular CD burner or portable device will be compatible with the software used to download Music Content or other material or that any CD burned using the software to download the Music Content or other material will function in all CD players. It is your sole responsibility to ensure that your system(s) will function correctly.

Under no circumstances shall any Digital Entity be liable for any unauthorised use of the Service, Music Content or any other materials.

Under no circumstances shall any Digital Entity be liable to you for any consequential, incidental or special damages (including damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, and the like) arising out of the use of or inability to use the Products, even if the Digital Entity has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

GENERAL PROVISONS APPLICABLE TO BOTH BOOMKAT & DIGITAL

21. CHILDREN

If you are under 18 you may only purchase goods from Us or make use of the Service with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

22. CREDIT CARD SECURITY

We and Digital both place great importance on keeping secure the credit card details you provide and to that end We and Digital use security systems which comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a worldwide standard for data protection across the payment industry.

23. FORCE MAJEURE

We shall have no liability to you for any failure to deliver any items which you have ordered or any delay in doing so or for any damage or defect to goods delivered that is caused by any event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control including, without limitation, strikes, lock-outs and other industrial disputes, breakdown of systems or network access, flood, fire, explosion or accident.

24. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

In the event that either We or Digital are held to be in breach of the Conditions the extent of any such liability shall be limited to loss that would have been reasonably foreseeable by you and Us or Digital (as the case may be) at the time the contract between you and Us and/or Digital (as the case may be) was formed (as determined in accordance with the foregoing provisions) and in any event any liability of Us or Digital (as the case may be) shall be limited to the value of the goods ordered by you in the relevant transaction. Nothing contained in the Conditions shall be deemed however to limit Our or Digital's (as the case may be) liability for death or personal injury arising as a result of negligence on the part of Boomkat or Digital (as the case may be). To the extent that any disclaimer or limitation on damages or liability in these Conditions is prohibited or limited by applicable law, then Boomkat and Digital (and if applicable the Digital Entities) shall be entitled to the maximum disclaimers and/or limitations on damages and liability available at law or in equity and in no event shall such damages or liability exceed £100.00.

25. THIRD PARTY RIGHTS

Except for our affiliates, directors, employees or representatives, a person who is not a party to this agreement has no right under the United Kingdom Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this agreement but this does not affect any right or remedy of a third party that exists or is available apart from that Act.

26. LAW AND LEGAL NOTICES

These Conditions and any other terms or documents referred to herein represent your entire agreement with Us and Digital with respect to your use of the services offered by them respectively. If any part of the Conditions is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as closely as possible, the original intentions of the parties, and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect.

The laws of England and Wales govern the Conditions and your use of the Service and the Tracks. You agree that the English Courts have jurisdiction over any claim or dispute whether with Us or with Digital or relating in any way to your account or your use of the Service or the Tracks.

Privacy

Boomkat are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
We do not send unsolicited emails to customers, and do not pass on
your private details to any third parties.

This policy (together with our terms of use: www.boomkat.com/terms)
and any other documents referred to on it sets out the basis on which
any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us,
will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to
understand our views and practices regarding your personal data
and how we will treat it. By visiting boomkat.com you are accepting
and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT FROM YOU

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Information you give us. You may give us information about
you by filling in forms on our site http://boomkat.com or by
corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This
includes information you provide when you register to use our
site, subscribe to our service, search for a product, place an
order on our site, enter a competition, promotion or survey,
or when you report a problem with our site. The information
you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address
and phone number, financial and credit card information, or
any other personal description.

Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your
visits to our site we may automatically collect the following
information:

technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP)
address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your
login information, browser type and version, time zone setting,
browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;

information about your visit, including the URL clickstream to,
through and from our site (including date and time); products
you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors,
length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information
(such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used
to browse away from the page

COOKIES

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our
website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when
you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For
more information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which
we use them see our Cookie Policy further down the page.

USES MADE OF THE INFORMATION

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us. We will use this information:

To process your orders

to carry out our obligations in providing you with the
information, products and services that you request from us;

to provide you with information about other goods and services we
offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or
enquired about;

to provide you with information about goods or services we
feel may interest you.

to notify you about changes to our service;

to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most
effective manner for you and for your computer.

Information we collect about you. We will use this information:

to administer our site and for internal operations, including
troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and statistical
purposes;

to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the
most effective manner for you and for your computer;

to allow you to participate in interactive features of our
service, when you choose to do so;

as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;

to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users
of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may share your personal information with any member of our
group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company
and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies
Act 2006.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties
If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data
in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to
enforce or apply our Terms of Website Use (www.boomkat.com/terms)
and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety
of Boomkat Limited, our customers, or others.

WHERE WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored
at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may
also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us
or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other
things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment
details and the provision of support services. By submitting your
personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.
We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your
data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy,
all information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers.

We take the security of our website and of your transactions
extremely seriously. We encrypt all traffic involving personal
data with industry-standard SSL certificates and we are also PCI
compliant - meaning that we follow all current data security
standards and undergo weekly scans monitoring our security status.

Additionally, we do not store any card details at all, all payments
are handled using a system of Tokenisation which is an
industry-standard method of secure payment handling. When you place
an order with us payment is either handled via your Paypal account
or if you choose to pay by credit/debit card we create a "Token"
with your payment details which is stored by the Bank payment gateway.
When you return to make a purchase it basically reactivates the
"Token" so no details need to be entered again and those details
are not stored by us.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password
which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are
responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you
not to share a password with anyone.

Although we will always do our best to protect your personal data, we
cannot 100% guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site
due to the nature of the internet. Any transmission is at your own risk,
but once we have received your information, we will always use strict
procedures and security protocols to try to ensure the safety of that
information.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be
posted on this page. Please check back to see any updates or changes
to our privacy policy.

CONTACT

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are
welcome and should be addressed to contact@boomkat.com.

COOKIE POLICY

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our
website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when
you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By
continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.